Many business organizations rely on complex software systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to serve as their computational backbone, on which almost all aspects of the business rely. Such software systems can include a large number of software modules that can be installed, updated, and/or customized specifically for the organization. Validating that the software systems are operating as expected typically requires extensive testing, which can be an expensive and labor-intensive process.
Despite the versatility in software systems that can be found, it is often the case that software systems belonging to different organizations utilize many software modules that are the same or similar, and/or software modules that involve similar customizations, and involve execution of similar transactions. Consequently, many of the tests run by different organizations to test their software systems may be relevant (possibly subject to some adaptations) to other organizations. Were organizations able to utilize each other's testing-related knowledge, which is in a sense a wisdom of the (testing) crowd, they might be able to come up with a more effective and efficient testing plan.
Collecting and sharing testing data from many organizations may be beneficial, but there are obstacles that stand in the way of effective utilization of such data. One problem is fishing out the appropriate tests from the sea of data that is collected. Each organization may run many tests for many software modules, and each test may involve execution of various transactions instantiated from various transaction types. Thus, there may be many thousands of transactions that can be tested by a certain organization. It may be difficult to select which transaction and/or transaction types to test, and/or which tests are most relevant for the testing. For example, given a desire to select and/or generate a test for a new organization that involves a certain transaction type, which of the many tests in the collection of testing data that involve the certain transaction type should be considered? Some tests may be more beneficial and/or relevant than others. An improper selection of the tests may lead to suboptimal results, such as providing the new organization with an irrelevant or ineffective test.